Xbox 360 Exclusive: Skyrim Kinect support announced

Gargantuan role-playing game The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will get Kinect support, Bethesda has announced. Support for Microsoft's motion-sensing device will come via a free title update due out this month. A video showcasing how it works is below.

Over 200 voice commands are added, including for Dragon Shouts, Hotkey Equipping, Follower Commands, and all Menus (Items, Magic, Map, Barter, Container, Favorites, and Skills).
You can also use voice commands to order your companions about, to create and load saves during gameplay and access menus and inventories.

The video shows how you're able to quickly switch weapon load-outs, from dual spells, for example, to axe and shield.

New functionality has been added, including special map functions, additional hotkey options and the ability to sort inventory items by name, weight, and value. Bethesda will release a full list of voice commands in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Bethesda revealed tentative details on the first Skyrim DLC add-on, due out as a timed Xbox 360 exclusive.

"Bethesda Game Studios has been hard at work on creating the first set of game add-ons that will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft," it said. "This additional content will add new quests, locations, features, and much more to the world of Skyrim. "Stay tuned, we hope to officially announce what it is soon."

Game developer Bethesda Softworks is ready to take role playing to the next level by adding voice commands via the Kinect controller to its wildly popular video game, "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". Skyrim, the second highest grossing game of 2011, takes players on an epic campaign as a warrior born with the blood and soul of a dragon. The game offers many adventures and quests, and players are free to roam and accept challenges as they wish.
The Kinect functionality in Skyrim will be available in five languages -- English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. The English version is expected to be released during the week of April 23 with the other versions following close behind.
Called "Project Adam," Bethesda began formulating the idea of merging Kinect's voice capabilities to "Skyrim" shortly after the game's release in November.

Pete Hines, vice president of marketing and public relations for Bethesda, told CNN.com in an exclusive interview before the official announcement that the developer wanted to add functionality that didn't exist in the original release.

"When you do things, like when you are on the map, you uncover a lot of map markers and quests to go to a particular place. [With Kineck] you can use voice commands to do things very easily, to jump to different cities on the map," Hines said. "Even doing things in inventory like sorting by weight, by value -- that functionality doesn't exist in 'Skyrim' as it is. With Kinect, it unlocks a lot of new options."

Hines said the development team also wanted to enhance gameplay. Voice control naturally leant itself to "Shouts," special vocal powers that the players have access to in the game.

"You have your full arsenal of Shouts available using Kinect without having to stop, go to a menu, pick the one you want to use, and go back in the game and use it," he said. "You just say the Shout, and as long as you have the ability, your character will just use it on the fly."

Kinect will also let players use voice commands to arm weapons, activate spells and tell your companions what to do. The commands are designed to be intuitive, and Matt Barlow, general manager of Xbox Marketing, said Kinect support will add more than 200 voice commands to the game, providing a new level of access for fans that goes beyond the controller.

"Working closely with the talented team at Bethesda, they have done an amazing job of honoring the core gameplay functionality fans of "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" know and love and using Kinect for Xbox 360 voice control integration to complement and strengthen the core experience without changing the fundamental game mechanics," Barlow said.

While two other games ("Mass Effect 3" and "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13") also use the Kinect for voice control, Barlow said allowing players easy access to menus and inventories, and to quickly create and load saves during gameplay is unique to "Skyrim."
However, don't get the idea you'll be waving your arms around in front of Kinect as you fight a dragon. Combat and casting magic will still be done through the handheld Xbox 360 controller. But simple actions that could be done through menus will be available easier with the Kinect.

"(Totally replacing the handheld controller) would be a whole other can of worms," Hines said. "Doing combat and swinging your sword and all that stuff without a controller would dramatically change the game. We're trying to enhance the experience as we designed it with some additional functionality."

Hines said the Kinect functionality will be an update to the existing game that will automatically download when Bethesda is ready to release it sometime later this month. Players won't have to do anything to enable the voice commands and will have the option to turn the Kinect functionality off if they choose.

The idea to merge Kinect with Skyrim came from one of the game's designers after the its release last year. During a "game jam," where game designers are given a week to work on whatever they want as long as it is related to the title, Ricky Gonzales, a programmer on "Skyrim," came up with the idea of using voice commands to do things within the game.
"He deserves a lot of the credit for putting the time in to get it to work and then working with Microsoft on some of the extra bits that they helped us out with," Hines said.

This would have been great if the game released with this feature. For me, this is too little, too late. The game is just too massive for me to play again using Kinect. I am jealous of those who have not played the game yet.

Wow they are starting to bring the things they showed in their dev jam thing they did. Kill cams for melee, arrows and spells, Kinect support...I guess they will give some of it for free and dlc others. This is pretty cool, and makes things very convenient. I'm not sure if I want to learn all the dragon shouts by heart though lol.

I'm holding off on Skyrim until all this "current content enhancing DLC" is released. I have crafted 3 very nice characters and have them in their seats of power, and I'll wait until I can ride dragons and shoot water arrows at torches etc.

I still stand by what I said but I will agree as far as not contribing to this particular thread.

One of my dislikes of Skyrim was just how slow the menu system could be, doing a lot of things were slow and dull (Although better then Oblivion and Fallout3) so this makes things MUCH faster. Sadly my version is of the PC and despite better technical performance I'd say being able to not take 50 hours to sort through items makes this Kinect add on $#@!ing brilliant

Last edited by Minnzy; 04-12-2012 at 15:51.

if I am in the PS3 or 360 section I will NOT post about the competitor just to please people, if you want to know what I think about the competitor link me to a thread in the appropriate section

few major problem i see;
-EPIC MUSIC TRACK IS EPIC!
-user voice.....not so much.
-volume cant go too high
-you must sit relatively close to it
and best of all
-if you love the aforementioned epic music, your surround sound is for moot

meh! someone had to play devils advocate

seriously though, i have this for ps3 and am quite envious now. especially of the quickslot voice commands and follower commands. (not so much the shouting, people gunna think im mental) those things streamline the experience majorly. i hate stopping to select stuff.

Afaik there are a handful of Skyrim PC mods for Kinect one of the 'best' I know of is being able to play the whole game, shouts, browsing menus, walking around and combat with kinect. I believe this update is heading to PC a week or so after, think I read that on EG.

I'm not sure what the fuss is all about with Kinect 'interpreting your voice and making commands'- this is not a magical kinect feature. This is crap that has been done with a mic for years now. Not really a "Kinect" experience if you ask me.

To be frank this entire thing is stupid. The majority of the Kinect features plugged into mainstream non-kinect games are generally voice recognition stuff. I have absolutely no idea why people are buying into the nonsense that this is a Kinect-thing.

I'm not sure what the fuss is all about with Kinect 'interpreting your voice and making commands'- this is not a magical kinect feature. This is crap that has been done with a mic for years now. Not really a "Kinect" experience if you ask me.

To be frank this entire thing is stupid. The majority of the Kinect features plugged into mainstream non-kinect games are generally voice recognition stuff. I have absolutely no idea why people are buying into the nonsense that this is a Kinect-thing.

Is the tech exclusive to Kinect? No, is it $#@!ing badass? Yes. I had a thought today...wait for Skyrim GOTY edition to release with ALL dlc and pick up a cheap ass 360+Kinect. Skyrim is a game that I will pour hundreds more hours into and the streamlined approach that VR offers to this game is amazing. It's only as I am playing with my mage at the moment that I realise how awesome it would be to be able to change my spell set up on the fly. It's so $#@!ing clumsy at the moment with the current menu, especially when I'm wanting to dual cast fire, then switch to healing and ward etc, then back to fire once im healed if there is easy commands to change left and right sides independently (which of course there will be). It would mean starting again, but doing that after all the expansion packs is no biggie for me, it will be well worth it for the benefits that this offers to me.

I'm not sure what the fuss is all about with Kinect 'interpreting your voice and making commands'- this is not a magical kinect feature. This is crap that has been done with a mic for years now. Not really a "Kinect" experience if you ask me.

To be frank this entire thing is stupid. The majority of the Kinect features plugged into mainstream non-kinect games are generally voice recognition stuff. I have absolutely no idea why people are buying into the nonsense that this is a Kinect-thing.

lol..What fuss? People are only voicing their opinion on the integration with Skyrim. I think most people are aware of the many kinect mods that exist. The point of the Op's post was to show how kinect support was coming to Skyrim and nothing more. I don't own Skyrim yet but it seems to be something that will be welcomed by some.

I'm with Vulgotha on this one, Kinect really isn't necessary for this though it's being pushed as otherwise.

if you want theses features with the 360 version then kinect is necessary. And who is pushing it? Its optional.

Except it is 'exclusive' to Kinect on the Xbox 360. You can't just plug in a mic and use your voice to do dragon shouts, even though it's entirely possible.

So if you want this "awesome game changing feature" you need to buy that really expensive motion sensing device.... For a function that a 10 dollar headset plugged into your controller could do.

Point I'm making here is that consumers are complete idiots with alot of this 'kinect' stuff.

I still don't see your point. You can still play the game without it. What angers you the most?..Is it that the feature itself exists or that its exclusive to kinect owners? Either way its still Skyrim with voice commands.

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